TechCentral
Internal Content Delivery Platform
Internal web platform that delivers CMS-managed content quickly and reliably for employees across Canadian regions, in both English and French.
Executive Summary
TechCentral is an internal knowledge and content delivery platform that helps TELUS employees find the right guidance fast, tailored by language (EN-CA/FR-CA) and region/audience.
The platform focuses on usability (onboarding, consistent navigation, favourites) and reliability (tested workflows, predictable behaviour). It serves as a central hub where employees can discover, search, and save content relevant to their role and location.
The Problem
Internal guidance discovery friction
Employees struggled to find the right information quickly. Content was scattered, search was poor, and there was no personalization based on role or region.
Bilingual + regional complexity
Canada requires English and French support, and different regions have different content needs. The platform needed to handle language and region preferences gracefully.
Editor autonomy needed
Content teams needed to publish and update without developer involvement, while maintaining strong UX and performance. Preview and rollback workflows were essential.
What I Delivered
Headless CMS-Driven Site
Frontend application consuming content from DotCMS. Authoring stays in the CMS; delivery/UX is handled by the app with production-grade integration patterns (services/adapters).
Bilingual + Region-Aware Experience
Language (EN-CA/FR-CA) and region preferences drive routing and content filtering. Users see content relevant to their location and language preference automatically.
Unified Search
One search experience across multiple content types. Fast, typo-tolerant (including diacritics handling for French), and shareable via URL state. Server-side execution with in-memory per-pod caching.
User Preferences + Favourites
Preference persistence for a consistent experience across visits. Users can save favourites and maintain their settings via Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL) + Prisma.
Editor Workflow Support
CMS preview support with version-controlled templates and predictable rollback. Content teams can publish independently while maintaining UX standards.
Technical Implementation
Stack
CMS Integration
DotCMS (headless) with production-grade integration patterns. Services/adapters abstract CMS API complexity and handle edge cases (API limits, image delivery constraints) with pragmatic mitigations.
Data Layer
Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL) + Prisma for preferences, favourites, sessions, and event-style telemetry. Deliberate Node.js runtime choice to support DB-backed session handling in middleware.
Search Architecture
Server-side execution with in-memory per-pod caching. Bilingual normalization (diacritics), spelling variations, relevance scoring, and URL-as-state for shareability.
Testing Strategy
Vitest (unit/integration) + Playwright (E2E), with reusable utilities and onboarding-safe test flows. Testing pyramid ensures confidence without slowing development.
Deployment Readiness
Designed for containerized GKE-style operations. Secure secrets handling, CI-friendly workflows, and structured documentation for maintainability.
Business Impact
AI-Powered Knowledge Assistant
Intelligent chatbot integration that ingests articles in real-time, providing employees with conversational access to a wide range of business knowledge. The AI automatically stays current with content updates.
Reduced Operational Friction
Faster, more reliable access to internal guidance reduces friction for frontline and support teams - they find what they need without hunting.
Editor Independence
Content teams can publish and update without developer involvement, while the platform maintains strong UX and performance standards.
Lower Long-Term Ownership Cost
Built with maintainability in mind - structured docs, testing pyramid, predictable architecture. Future developers can understand and extend the system.
My Responsibilities
As the solo developer on this project, I owned:
- End-to-end delivery: architecture, implementation, UI/UX, API/data integration, testing strategy, performance decisions, and operational considerations.
- Managing platform constraints: CMS API limits/bugs, image delivery constraints - with pragmatic mitigations and documentation.
- Building for maintainability: clear project structure, repeatable test patterns, and documented architectural decisions.
Need an Internal Tool Like This?
If your team is stuck searching through docs, spreadsheets, or siloed systems - let's talk about building something that works.